Many of us, well-trained in the school of chills and thrills, find something almost delicious in scaring ourselves silly like this. But if we are honest with ourselves, especially in the wee small hours, the thought that ghosts and ghouls might target our bedroom to haunt tonight is something other than entertaining. In these moments we come closest to the experience of ...

Shall we witness? Yes, yes we shall. And Jesus will be lifted up in the eyes, ears and hearts of all the Spirit calls to trust in him. Let us not ignore the growing antagonism to, complacency for, and ignorance of the gospel. Yet, let us ask Jesus to keep his promises, He will still use us to save sinners!...

This is why we consider these bountiful harvests of degradation in the church: because God has yet prom-ised to bring revival on his people, and (re)build his church in the pure gospel that leaves them rejoicing in Jesus! There is a bountiful recovery yet waiting for us. Let us go to him and ask in simple faith and repent-ance. He will amen!...

It is reasonable to be upset about the increasing degrees of persecution against Christians in our land. It is reasonable to even be scared by just the threat of it. Yet let us not remain in that fear. Let us look to our brothers and sisters suffering worse degrees of persecution for the name of Christ. Let us take comfort in their prayers for us that we too might experien...

Let’s end with one more significant reminder: Jesus lived, died, and rose again to break all our idolatries, in-cluding all our sexual idolatries. “Such were some of you” in 1 Corinthians 6:11 is the guarantee that the forgiveness and cleansing in 1 John 1:9 is true! Let us take this promise to our fami-ly/friends/neighbors/strangers. Whether they’ve worshipped the...

We need to be clear in our warning against sexuality outside legitimate heterosexual marriage, if only be-cause it is a common sin ensnaring and carrying of into eternal hell millions around us. The ensnared ones include both shepherds and sheep professing faith in Christ. For their sake we must be clear on the true danger they face. And we must also be clear on the suffic...

Let us put repentance’s necessity back in its place, as the starting point for our gospeling. People will be saved, both those rejecting Jesus and those with a flawed hope in him. They will be freed from “whatever that means.”...

Even though the believer is promised that God is sovereignly overseeing each day of life with Christ, in its details, the appearance of these daily comfort criminals leads him to ask, “Uh God, you’re paying attention, right?” The answer God gives in the Bible may seem like there is a disconnect between reality and his understand-ing of what exactly comfort is. Nevert...

There you have it! A man with the most despicable life imaginable, at the last possible moment of life, made a profession of faith, to which God said “yes”. He did nothing to earn this, nor could he do anything to prove his worth afterwards. Instead, an exception to the rule, this man was ushered from conversion, to im-mediate death, to judgment. There he found that hi...

You will experience the Spirit-ual Octane-Boosted life. As you do, let your gratefulness for your new life propel you into witnessing to those around you. Some of them are driving their lives into the doom of hell. Others may or may not be saved, and need to know how you’ve learned to live by the Spirit-powered, faith-fueled new life in Christ. Both kinds of people will ...

Let’s dare to become like them, heroes of the faith. The people around us, those who intuitively know they “need a hero” will look to us, and see and hear of Christ. Born again, they will rejoice in joining us in this daring life....

Our witness is a primary means God will use to win his children to the true gospel (Rom 10:13-17). Our wit-ness, then, is a vital starting point for people to experience the true fruit of Christ’ abundant life, the one that yields an eternal weight of blessed joyful glory....

Unless we return to this fight (witnessing), one of these doomsayers is gonna be right and the sky is going to fall on us. Unless we return to training for this fight (discipleship), we will keep fighting the wrong bat-tles, with each other and the world. Unless we return to going to the arena to cheer on our Champion Jesus (worship), we will shout ourselves voiceless in a...

Now, more than ever, we need to fall down before God and plead his mercy on us. We need to be wary of falling into the various us-vs-them traps Satan uses when God’s people begin to observe something is stink-ing up the Church. We need to plead for our own humility, looking for where we might be guilty of devalu-ing, defacing, or detracting from the gospel of Christ. And...

Let us repent of how easily we get incensed at cultural offenses, while the name of our Savior is mocked day and night without a murmur from us! Let us repent of caring more about someone respecting our opinion than repenting of their sins before the King who will judge them and send them to hell. Let us repent of posting even a handful of things about the events of the da...

America’s right to “free speech” is enshrined in the idea of the open public square, where anyone is allowed to set up their soap-box and bellow out the message they think their fellow citizens need to heed. With this SCOTUS decision, the soap box has been forcibly removed, and replaced with a guillotine. Mark these words and watch as what are now only implication-pr...

Our flesh will repeatedly leap up and cry against assuming this burden. Yet, as we consider the Bible’s teaching on this, the Spirit will shut up our flesh and strengthen our faith. Then we will see and believe that the Great Commission is a blessed burden. Let us be eager to pray for this conviction. The joyful glory of God in both our lives and theirs assuredly awaits....

This is what the Millennial-none needs: a believer, secure in a Spirit-born faith, to trust God and take the gospel to them. Yes, skepticism will be wide and deep in the Millennial-none’s life. Yet the Spirit who gives true new life will cause our light, Jesus himself, to shine in our words and ways. He will lead them to a faith that ends both their slavery and their wan...

If a fear causes you to pause before leaping into danger, or prompts you to run away from destruction, that fear is eminently a good thing. Such is the fear of God that leads to wisdom....

In sum, nominal Christians are missing the two vital parts of the gospel. They are missing the Bible’s expla-nation of the reason for what ails them: they’ve got hearts that are dead toward their Creator. They are also missing the Bible’s full promise that through Jesus their dead heart is excised and a new alive-unto-God heart is spiritually transplanted in! This is...

This is why we pray for revival. It is a good expression of our faith to learn how to witness, to develop lists of people we know need Jesus, and to strategize on how to give them the gospel. Yet apart from the Spirit’s effective presence, we labor in vain. Apart from the Spirit’s powerful response, our efforts will be for naught, so much exertion of our energy without...

If Jesus were a superhero, one of his titles would rightly be The Abominator. The gospel begins with this horrible truth that all of us are so fully and truly abominations before the Lord that we have no hope of ever finding even the possibility of peace with God. Yet, God who justly hates us in our abominations has also chosen to love us in them! He sent Jesus to become t...

This is why we pray for revival: many of those professing faith in Christ show symptoms of the FPG virus. They are weak in desires for Christlikeness, and they are strong in desires for worldliness. The absence of the delightful sabbath in many of their hearts is strong evidence of their spiritual illness. Let us increase our pleading with the Great Physician to send the S...

We who have Jesus have a shame-free hope, one that is both the right quality and quantity that secures our true purpose-in-life. Let us take the message of this sure hope back to our community!...

Surely the coronavirus is a crown of judgment. Yet until Jesus returns it is a crown that warns people to flee to Jesus to escape the coming judgment from which there is no hope of escape. Let us recommit ourselves proclaiming this good news echoed in this crown of judgment....

God is not mocked. The coronavirus is one of the seeds we’ve sown, and its toll of suffering and death is part of the harvest of corruption that comes with it (Gal 6:7-8). In this grandma hating time, singing the Mt Carmel Blues won’t take away the sting of these things (1Co 15:55-56). We need to return to our first love, our only hope, Jesus, and take him to our famil...

The crushing of Millennial dreams causes many to cry out in anger, frustration, and fear. It is a terrible thing to lose your dreams, and then maybe your life as well. Yet the coronavirus, reducing a victim’s breathing, all but eliminates a person’s ability to scream. Further, even those of us who are healthy, trapped in our self-quarantines, don’t really have the op...

We who have heard the truly good news, who have been put to death to this life, and already brought back to a new life (Gal 2:20), we need envy no more. In this pandemic the world has coughed. Let us tell them of the Savior who died for them....

While we're right to be concerned about COVID-19, it does point us to a more deadly virus, one that only the Lord of Life can cure! The Church is in the grips of a spiritual pandemic worse than any natural virus. Let us take those contaminated by it to the Great Physician. He is their only hope of a cure from this more deadly virus....

Could it be that so many in our community know the right answers (“I’m a sinner, Jesus is my savior”) but live under the old life because they’ve never experienced the killing effect of repentance unto life? Could it be that even some of those who have been born again languish under the remnants of the old life (Rom 7:15-25) simply because of never understanding th...

Witnessing the good news of Jesus Christ to the students of Auburn University Montomgery!...

When the ordinary terrors of life trouble our nights; when the serious terrors plague our nights, where do we find rest? A plea for sympathy for the suffering, and a prayer for hope in Jesus....

Rejection is a bad thing, right? Unless it is one of the three manners of rejection that God uses in the ministry of the gospel. Without these three manners of rejection, there is no true salvation....

My new friend, and all those like him hoping in a soft-prosperity gospel (any hope of the good life here and now), need to recover the rainbow’s warning and promise. God will not let any rebellion against him escape his wrathful judgment of eternal fire. Yet in Jesus, God promises that though we rebel against him, even racking up a record of sin higher than Sodom and Gom...

Things seem pretty messed up right now in our country. What do these tell us about the providence of God? I.e., what do these things tell us is up with Jesus' who is the ruler of all?...

Unless and until we get back to telling folks that, there is little hope that the soft-prosperity/life-coaching/sin-neglecting gospel will make any difference for them. Instead, as they discover this gospel is worthless, they will continue to abandon the church. May we repent and return to offering them Jesus, the only wellspring of the soul!...

Revival praying includes asking for the boldness to give people a full gospel, one full of the hard words too! Unless the hear the Bible's words of sin and judgment, they will not consider Jesus' word's of grace and mercy. Let us pray we use the Bible's word, and not soft-pedal the gospel at all....

Without a desire for godliness (love for God) and holiness (living for God), do we have a real interest in Jesus? The lack of these loves among professing Christians shows how dire our need for revival is....

Witnessing requires stick-to-it-tiveness. Results are not always immediate. Yet they are guaranteed by God....

Update #3 on AUM Outreach...

So this has probably crossed your mind before:Does God still speak to people? If so, how? When that little voice speaks in my head, is that the Spirit?...

Introduction to the Pastor's Blog. More posts are forthcoming!!...

Why does God ordain something as mundane and painful as a migraine? For His glory and our joy of course. Read here my experience of falling into witnessing opportunities all because of a migraine....